Day 45 – More miles
Day 45
Lat S88deg 43.702’
Long W80deg 47.108’
Altitude 2720m
Daily
distance 13.91nm
Distance to SP 76.69nm
Another really good day but
bitterly cold.
Made better mileage again which is pleasing but that’s down to
a few factors.
The terrain is now very flat without anything to hinder
progress so no need to pick your route through the sastrugi. The down side of
this is that there are a lack of features to navigate to and what is there isn’t
necessarily on your bearing. Still easy enough to navigate it’s just that this
way was much easier.
I have changed my routine to give me more skiing time
for the same hours. I’m now doing five 2 hour blocks which means less break time
and more skiing. I have added an extra half an hour today and yesterday too so
that’s ten and a half hours skiing with an hour of breaks. Not a lot of break
time but when it’s cold like today you really don’t want to stop! Got to have
breaks and take on fuel and fluid and can’t miss my second top up dose of
curraNZ to help me through the second part of the day so trying to be really
quick on these.
Having started with 65kg of food this is now down to around
8kg. It’s hard to believe I was pulling all that weight and now it’s very
noticeably lighter. However, the surface up here on the plateau is very grainy
so there’s no free glide which means you have to drag the pulk every step
instead of it gliding effortlessly behind you. As I was told, it doesn’t get
easier out here, it just gets different!
I should be clocking up more miles
considering all this but after all this time my body has consumed a lot of my
fat reserves and a good amount of muscle too which means I’m not as strong as
when I started. As a consequence it’s slow and steady but still an
improvement.
As I said it was bitterly cold today with the stiff wind giving
a temperature of minus 40. This was offset by the sun being out all day but with
some mid level of cloud to keep it in check. Made for good comfortable skiing
without getting too hot or cold unless having a break and it provided a sun dog
for most of the morning too. Now in the tent it hasn’t heated the place as
normal but there is a noticeably more comfortable temperature in here than
yesterday when the sun disappeared. As long as it’s enough to dry my face mask
and buff I’ll be happy in the morning.
#heartinternet #diabetesuk #curraNZ #expeditionfoods #primalpantry
#antarcticlogisticsandexpeditions #solo #southpole #antarctica
#seediabetesdifferently
